Since 2006, the three division winners and the non-division winner with the best record are seeded 1 through 4 for the playoffs in order of their record, with all remaining non-division winners seeded 5 through 8. This leaves open the possibility that a #2 or #3 seed could be a non-division winner. Home-court advantage in a playoff series is decided by record, not by seeding, so if a #4 and #5 team met in a playoff series in which the #5 team had the better record, the #5 team would have home-court advantage.

The reasoning behind this seeding arrangement is that a non-division winner could have a better record than the winners of the two divisions other than the one that produced the non-division winner in question. If the three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 for the playoffs in order of their record, and all non-division winners seeded 4 through 8, it would be possible for the two leading teams of the conference to meet in the Conference Semifinals. This actually happened in the 2006 NBA Playoffs when the two best teams in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, both from the Southwest Division, faced one another in the Western Conference Semifinals while the 3rd seed, the Northwest Division-leading Denver Nuggets, had fewer wins than the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th seeds. The NBA proposed and approved of the current format to ensure that the best two teams of a conference can meet no earlier than the NBA Conference Finals.

The current divisional alignment was adopted at the start of the 2004–05 season, when the now Charlotte Hornets began play as the NBA's 30th franchise. This necessitated the move of the New Orleans Pelicans from the Eastern Conference's Central Division to the newly created Southwest Division of the Western Conference.

a 123 The New Orleans Hornets temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City due to the effect of Hurricane Katrina. The majority of home games were played in Oklahoma City, while a few remained in New Orleans.

b 1 For the 1949–50 season only, the NBA had three different conferences (called divisions at the time), resulting in three different conference champions. The Anderson Packers of the Western Division had to play the Minneapolis Lakers of the Central Division in a best-of-three series in the NBA semifinals, with the Lakers winning 2–0 and advancing to the 1950 NBA Finals to take on the Eastern Division champion Syracuse Nationals.